Chinese fighter jet ‘nearly collides’ with American B-52 bomber over South China Sea, says US

A Chinese fighter pilot nearly crashed into an American B-52 bomber over the South China Sea during a nighttime intercept, said the United States officials, in a statement on Thursday.

They also criticised what they described as an “unsafe and unprofessional” move raising concerns that the pilot was unaware of how close he came to “causing a collision.”

The incident comes amid top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi’s visit to Washington who arrived on Thursday and said that the US and China need to have “in-depth” and “comprehensive” dialogue in order to reduce misunderstandings and stabilise ties.

What happened?

According to the officials of the US Indo-Pacific Command, on Tuesday (Oct 24) a Chinese fighter jet J-11 pilot executed what they described as an “unsafe intercept” while the US Air Force B-52 aircraft was “conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace.”

The Chinese pilot “flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, demonstrated poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of collision,” said the US officials, in a statement.

It added, “We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision.”

According to the US officials, the intercept by the Chinese pilot was conducted at night with “limited visibility, in a manner contrary to international air safety rules and norms.”

Rise in tensions over South China Sea

The incident comes amid a rise in tension between China and the US over the East and South China Sea.

According to the top Pentagon official in charge of the security of the region, Washington has witnessed a rise in instances of “coercive and risky” behaviour from Chinese pilots against US aircraft in the last two years than an entire decade before that.

“Since the fall of 2021, we have seen more than 180 such incidents,” said Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Ely Ratner, earlier this month. “It’s a centralized and concerted campaign to perform these risky behaviors in order to coerce a change in lawful US operational activity,” he added.

Last week, the Pentagon released videos and descriptions of over a dozen recent instances of what it called “coercive and risky operational behavior” by China’s People’s Liberation Army against US aircraft.